Tom Morgan: Just couldn’t wait to get out of school. Couldn’t wait to be able to make money.  Couldn’t wait to kind of go off into the world and do her thing. Very ambitious.

They buried her, or what was left of her after the fire, in this garden-like cemetery, in the finest casket they could find.

Jim Morgan: We were asked by the police department to make sure, in case something did come up in the future, that they could exhume her body,  and do DNA testing. 

But early on it didn’t look like that precaution would be needed.  Days after the murder, a tantalizing lead in the classified section of a local newspaper. A personal advertisement. “Jennifer,” it read, “I hope that you will be able to forgive me. I am truly sorry.”

Sheriff Kenny Boone: And it was signed, Barney.  And we didn’t know if the person who’s responsible for this could’ve been sending a message, you know, kinda like, I’m sorry kinda thing.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent:  It was an apology?

Sheriff Boone:  An apology.  So, we wanted to figure out, you know, could this be related? 

Kenny Boone and his investigators swooped hopefully into the newspaper office and discovered the ad had been placed by a local DJ hoping to save his own romance with a different Jennifer altogether.

And so, back to the mobile home park.    Boone  pieced together a timeline for the day of the killing.

Jennifer attended her first class of the day—Grancis Marion campus around 9:30 a.m.

Sheriff Boone: I think Jenny came home between classes. I think Jenny had gotten something to drink. I think she sat down on the couch had opened a book, set a drink down on top of a coaster on a coffee table.

Morrison: Cause they’re there.

Sheriff Boone: We found those things. And then she winds up face down on her bed.

Face down, and dead.  And so the killer...

Kenny Boone: Used the fire to cover up any additional evidence that might have been there.

That included any fibers, hairs or fingerprints that might lead to a suspect.

But what about a motive? The melted television and a few pieces of jewelry left behind, fused by the heat, seemed to rule out robbery.

Jennifer’s autopsy revealed no sign of sexual assault.

There was, however, one very curious discovery. Clutched in Jennifer’s hand - not on her wrist, but in her grip was a watch.

Sheriff Boone: Now, and, you know, now, in our mind, you know, I’m thinking, you know, “Jenny, are you trying to send us a message?  You know, does this mean something?”

Maybe.  The watch, Boone discovered, had been a gift from Scott Snowden.

Scott Snowden: I gave it to her as a gift for Christmas, maybe her birthday. (It was a Fossil watch.)

Back then, Snowden was Jennifer’s special boyfriend.  They met through his sister Dina, who was Jennifer’s best friend.  And yes, the woman who was having her baby the day Jennifer was killed.

Morrison: She had ideas that maybe she might one day be married to your brother?

Dina Berg: Oh yea they talked about it.  Six children; they were going to have a basketball team (laughs)

Morrison: They were in love?

Berg: yeah, they were in love.

But, when Scott and Jennifer enrolled in different colleges many miles apart, their romance was put on hold.

Snowden: We knew the distance would be a strain on the relationship.  She started seeing other guys, I started seeing other girls.  But we still talked and kept it close.

Morrison: And did you intend to begin a full-time relationship when you graduated?

Snowden: That’s hard to say. That was my opinion at the time.

Investigator Boone confirmed Snowden couldn’t have been the killer.  Professors proved he was three hours away at his college the morning of the Jennifer’s death.  But, what about that watch? Why would a woman likely fighting for her life hold on to a thing like that?

Snowden: I have no idea why she would’ve been clutching that watch.

But Scott had questions of his own. Like, why was she at home that morning?

Snowden: It was awfully odd for her to leave campus in the middle of the day like that during her classes to come home. Unless there was a break or something.

Morrison: It’s not something she would’ve normally done?

Snowden: It’s not something she normally would’ve done. For it to happen so early in the morning it shows that it must’ve been somebody she knew.

Scott’s sister Dina knew someone, a fraternity boy named Chris.   Dina remembers Jennifer complaining that Chris would come over and stay for hours even when she begged him to leave.

Berg: He was one of those guys that wanted to really date her and thought that was someone that he could really spend the rest of his life with, but she did not feel that way towards him at all.

His name was Chris Woodson, a science major Jennifer met at her college campus.  Scott had met him too, in fact. It was the last night Scott saw Jennifer, at her trailer, when Chris showed up.  It was two nights before she died.

Snowden: I was there for five, maybe ten minutes.  I could see it on him that he was jealous but…

Morrison:  What do you mean  you could see it on him?

Snowden: He’s like, “What are you doing here?” and he’s just jealous, doesn’t like another guy over at this girlfriend’s house.

Morrison: He looked territorial, sort of?

Snowden: Yeah.  He went in and we got to the door and I blew her a kiss and she winked at me and smiled real big and we said, “I’ll talk to you later” and that was it.

The Morgan family also knew about Chris Woodson.  And you know what they say about first impressions.

Jim Morgan: Before we ever met him, he would call 25-30 times on a Saturday when she came home from college.

Kerry Morgan: Clingy, protective, stalky like he just stalked her.

Morrison: How long did this go on?

Jim Morgan: Six months, yeah probably six months.

It was still going on, they said, the weekend before Jennifer’s death as the family gathered for an early Thanksgiving.

Tom Morgan: That last weekend that I saw her, the phone rang at least 10 times. Where is she? What is she doing?  She’s at work, she’s at work... I would pick up the phone to the point that it was annoying.

I said you’ve got to do something about this relationship.  She just said it’s a friend of mine.  We had a couple of dates.  He’s just a friend.

Morrison: Yeah? Did you say what’s this guy stalking you?

Tom Morgan: She just acted like it was annoying.

Before long Investigator Boone had heard about Chris Woodson, too.  And when he brought the young man in for questioning, his suspicions only intensified.

Sheriff Boone: I remember Chris. He was crying and he was, his emotions and stuff thy way he was acting, you know, it kinda led me to believe that you this could be our man.

Kinda, indeed.  Boone was so suspicious, he put a polygrapher on standby, then started his interrogation.

Chris readily admitted he loved Jennifer, and knew she did not love him the same way. He said they had sex the day before she died at his apartment here on campus and he did her laundry for her too. That was the day he said he admitted his deepest feelings for her, even though she didn’t want to hear them.

Here’s a quote from the transcript of the interrogation:

“I said Jennifer promise me one thing.  She was like what? I said promise me you that you know I love you.  I want you to know that I do care in case anything ever happens.  She was like, you know, quit nothing ain’t gonna never happen to me.....And it did.”

One more thing. Chris told Boone he argued with Jennifer about their relationship and left her trailer about 10:30 the night before her death.

Sheriff Boone: I felt like this could be it because the motive could be there because of his jealousy or anger.

Investigator Boone alerted the polygrapher.  It was time to take that test.

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